ATO Visual call on Disguise’s GX 3+ to deliver CRUSH HOUR’s complex live show

For the fourth edition of his annual ‘CRUSH HOUR’ concert, South Korean R&B artist CRUSH returned to the stage at Jamsil Arena with an ambitious visual concept inspired by his 2025 EP FANG.

With just 18 days to deliver the show, ATO Visual was tasked with creating a visually cohesive experience across a complex stage layout, featuring transparent LED panels, multiple performance zones and live Notch-driven content.

To bring the production to life, the team deployed Disguise GX 3+ and GX 3 media servers in a director–actor configuration, ensuring stable playback and precise control across all stage elements.

The challenge

The stage design combined a wide main stage, a raised upstage area, a central runway and a lift platform, requiring content to be accurately mapped across multiple zones while maintaining consistency from the audience’s perspective.

At the same time, all LED panels on the main stage were transparent tiles, creating challenges in maintaining key design elements such as solid colours and full-surface typography.

“The main objective was to maintain the simple and solid design language of the FANG album artwork while adapting it to a stage environment where many different elements coexisted,” says Lee Dami.

Creating accurate pixel maps for the stage was another key challenge. Initial flat schematic layouts allowed operators to understand the structure, but did not account for real-world distortion, requiring content display areas to be redefined during programming to match the physical stage.

With content delivered late in the process and only one rehearsal day available, the team needed a workflow that could adapt quickly on-site while maintaining precise control over mapping and playback.

The solution

To address these challenges, the team built a flexible Disguise workflow using the GX 3 server as the director, and GX 3+ as the actor, enabling stable performance while handling real-time Notch VFX and multiple input sources.

Given the limited preparation time, previsualisation became a critical part of the workflow. Using Disguise’s mapping tools and stage simulation capabilities, the team was able to test the overall scale of the stage, content placement and transitions before arriving on site.

“Because of the tight schedule, we couldn’t rely on fully finalised content before load-in,” explains Kim Jaehwan. “Using Disguise’s previsualisation and mapping tools allowed us to understand the stage layout and prepare for transitions in advance, which made a big difference once we were on site.”

Notch VFX was used to integrate live camera feeds with dynamic visual content across multiple input sources, requiring a system capable of maintaining stable real-time performance.

“We expected that parts of the programming would need to be completed on-site, so we needed a system that could handle real-time Notch workflows reliably,” adds Kim. “Disguise’s GX 3+ gave us the performance to do that without stability issues.”

The LED setup was divided into two UHD outputs based on physical placement, separating outer LED elements from core stage surfaces for efficient control and playback.

Using Designer’s stage-level Props and Parallel Mapping tools, the team was able to precisely align content across multiple transparent LED layers, masking and exposing visuals in line with stage movements and transitions.

The result

Despite the compressed timeline and complexity of the setup, CRUSH HOUR 2025 was delivered successfully across all show days, with adjustments made during each performance.

The Disguise workflow enabled stable playback of Notch-driven visuals, precise masking across transparent LED panels and efficient programming under tight time constraints.

“We consider it a major achievement that we were able to organise this in an efficient way, while resolving the differences between the content creation stage and the reality of on-site LED setup,” says Dami.

By combining GX 3+ performance with Disguise’s previsualisation and mapping capabilities, ATO Visual successfully translated an ambitious creative vision into a cohesive live experience.